Bluefin tuna in the Adreatic Sea

[:en]

By Marc Inoue

For way over a month now there has been constant surface action of bluefin tunas in the 30-60 kg class between the islands of Krk and Cres! Most of the time the action was so close to the shoreline that you could theoretically hook a fish shorecasting!

Weather permitting I was on the sea every weekend, and I never returned to port without having at least a strike on topwater spinning gear! On the best day I caught and released eight fishes! Days with 3 – 4 fishes are normal!

The tunas are feeding on anchovies and they are pushing them up, and towards the shoreline of the island of Cres, where the water depths are plummeting to 50 meters right off the coast!

Strangely the tunas seemed to like a little larger lures! Even though their main food fish are anchovies, I got hardly any strikes on lures mimicking anchovies in size and shape! Most strikes came on larger popper in the 15 – 20cm class!

Why?? I can only guess! There are millions of anchovies around, and if the lure mimicks exactly that bait, it is harder for the tuna to find! If you are using something completely different, something that „stands out“ from the mass of other baitfishes, it is more likely to be noticed, and eaten! All in all it just shows you, that the only rule in fishing is, that there are no rules!

The tackle we were using are Temple Reef Black Devil 100 & 200 Tuna rods, paired with Stellas 10000 and Saltigas 6500. For leader material YGK FC Absorber in 70 – 80lbs!